The Old Language
by crazyrubsoff
Summary: Sabo went against his parent's wishes to go to Grey Terminal, so why would learning the language they hated be any different? A study into why all of the One Piece world speaks the same language.


Sabo grew up knowing about the Old Languages, was raised on legends of the Ancients that built fearsome weapons, lived with little knowledge of each other and spoke many (differing) languages best left forgotten. When he was bad, Sabo would be threatened with tales of the cursed clan whose very existence went against the will of God; whose very name, if spoken aloud, could bring death and destruction to unsuspecting noble boys. As much as he asked, Sabo was never told the identity of the cursed clan, lest it invite their wrath – was only told they sought to topple the perfect, beautiful world and bring back the old ways.

There was a festival, once every year, celebrating the establishment of the world government. As part of a ritual, flags and banners representing the Old Times were hung, burned and replaced with flags bearing the insignia of the world government and the tenryuubito. To the citizens of Goa, they were just symbols, meanings long forgotten about. To the nobles they were reminders of the evils long gone. To Sabo, they went against everything the nobles stood for and the boy vowed to research the ancient languages.

It was hard for a young boy to get his hands on the sort of book that was doubtless going to get all involved on the bad side of the nobles and the world government. Naturally that was even more reason for Sabo to do it, along with running away from home to fraternise with the 'lowly humans too stupid to be born noble.'

* * *

When Sabo was five, and regularly hanging out with the angry boy from the forest, he had his first taste of the Old Language outside festivals and traditional Goan foods.

The two of them had scavenged a meal of fruits and were sitting in one of the many trees where they wouldn't be found. Just as he was about to take a bite of the fruit he had picked, Sabo heard a clap and his companion say "itadakimasu."

"Ace?" Sabo had asked, too surprised to eat the food he was so looking forward to.

"What?" Ace asked, mouth full of half chewed fruit, already his third – and only a snack! "Is there something on my face?"

"What was that thing you said? Ita-?"

"Huh? Oh, you mean 'itadakimasu'? It's traditional; I didn't even realise I said it. It's just a way of giving thanks for the food." The subject was dropped as they went back to their meal, but Sabo wrote the word onto his brain and vowed to look into it some more.

* * *

A book on languages finally became available to Sabo when he was eight. By this time he had picked up the odd word and phrase from Ace's mutterings. He had taken to starting and finishing his meals with the traditional phrases and saying 'haraheta' in lieu of 'I'm hungry.' He'd even started accepting it when Ace would say 'gomen' or some variant as an apology. Ace's apologies were already few and far between.

When he finally got the book, it had been on one of their adventures into the city. They'd managed to slay a crocodile and decided to sell it and some of the gold they'd stolen from merchants a couple of years ago for a bit of cash. The hide they had sold for a decent price in one of the shops they like to rotate through and then went to sell the gold in several of the many pawn and antique shops in the outer city.

This particular store had, when they enterd, been occupied by another customer. As the shopkeeper had been distracted by the unknown man, Sabo and Ace made a show of looking at the other wares: that had been when he had seen it. Usually just another dusty book on the shelf, 'Culture, Etiquette and Language of the World' didn't really stand out much. But for Sabo, it was exactly what he had been looking for come near four years so he grabbed it off the shelf and started rifling through the pages, even keeping it by his elbow the entire negotiation process.

As Sabo was the 'head' this time, it was his job to get a good price for the necklace and earring set they were trying to sell. "I'll do you twenty five, but I won't go lower." Sabo told the shopkeeper. The had decided to aim for twenty thousand beri but the shopkeeper was being difficult.

"Fifteen. And I'll even throw in the rare book," the shopkeeper declared, shooting a meaningful look at the heavy tome. He was starting to sweat and Sabo knew he wouldn't be able to go much higher.

"Eighteen and the book and we'll call it even," Sabo declared in his best 'finality' voice, resolutely ignoring the obvious displeasure he could feel from Ace beneath him.

"Deal!" the shopkeeper declared, handing over the cash and taken away the jewellery. Sabo tucked the money and the book away and he and Ace made their exit.

* * *

"So what's so good about that book?" Ace asked several days later. Sabo had taken to hiding the book in his tree on the rare occasion he wasn't reading it.

"It's fascinating, Ace. Did you know the Common Language originated on an island in the North blue? But the characters we use for writing came from an island in the West blue. Your habit of using titles and honorifics after a person's name is one shared by half the East blue and certain islands in the Grand Line but nowhere else."

"Yeah, whatever," Ace scoffed, grabbing his pipe and heading off into the forest. Sabo stowed the book away and headed after his friend.

* * *

When Sabo was ten, Luffy Happened. There really was no other way to describe it, capitalisation and all.

The first few months, the extra boy was just an annoyance. Sabo never saw him, but Ace had to get creative and take increasingly longer routes to lose the brat. Until one day he didn't.

"Ace!" A child's voice had called up from the forest floor, followed by a string of sounds Sabo recognised as the Old Language. He thought he heard the Old word for pirate but didn't know enough of the language to be sure. Ace let out a string of curses in both languages and then some, while Sabo jumped down and tied the kid to a tree.

"So this is the Luffy guy you were telling me about?" He commented to Ace in Common, while Ace said something in Old. The kid said something back that Sabo definitely didn't understand and Ace growled at him in Old to shut up, which Sabo had heard enough times to understand.

"This is why you should live here with me. What should we do?" Sabo complained. He didn't know if the brat spoke Common but it was highly likely; everyone spoke Common. That would make having confidential talks a problem.

"He knows our secret," Ace pointed out. "If we let him go, he'll tell someone. Let's kill him.

"I agree!"

"NANI?! I don't wanna die! O korosanaide!" As Sabo watched, the kid started spouting hysterical nonsense pleas in both Old and Common. With the amount of crying and wailing he was doing, Sabo wouldn't be surprised if Ace couldn't understand the kid, and Ace knew many languages. Suddenly the kid stopped crying and screaming long enough to catch his breath and let out one last "HELP!"

The rest of the afternoon made it apparent that Sabo would be stuck with Luffy and therefore the Old Language.

* * *

"Ichi, ni, san. Ichi, ni, san." Sabo woke up to hear these three words spoken in the Old Language. He had a vague idea that they were numbers but he couldn't be sure. "Nani?! What in the hell is the meaning of this? Ace, Luffy, who the hell is this? Why is there another brat here?"

Sabo introduced himself to the woman that had to be Dadan using the minimum of the curtesy that had been drilled into his head by his parents more than half a lifetime ago.

After a while of living with the bandits, Sabo discovered something: the bandits collectively spoke a mixture of Common, the Old Language and a few other East Blue languages Sabo wasn't familiar with. Dogra, the giant coward, has a curious habit of addressing people with 'pak' in front of their name when he gets worked up – he maintains that this is just polite on his home islands but crawls off embarrassed every time he does it. Sabo is very sure he comes from a nifty string of small islands that manages to have 700 local dialects but only one recognised language that isn't Common, but a pidgin combination of the more widely used dialects.

One bandit follows a South Blue religion that worships their God for the pain he gives. Three others follow the 'teachings of the Church, he died for your sins.' Sabo was pretty sure the church was pre-tenryuubito and that the world government didn't like its 'teachings' or 'commandments.'

Dadan herself was a Dawn native and insisted all address her using one of the Old words for boss: Okashira.

When Makino, Luffy's friend from the village, visited, she spoke rapid-fire Old that left Sabo's head reeling and Luffy jumping all over the place. Luffy said something in return with Sabo and Ace's names in it. Ace just scoffed and turned away with a scowl. Makino turned to Ace and Sabo and giggled.

"Hontou ni?" Makino asked, the Old word she used being one Luffy used often that Sabo took to mean something along the lines of 'really.'

Ace turned back around to answer her with a sullen "hai," which led to the three of them having a conversation in Old that Sabo caught absolutely none of until Makino pulled a piece of red cloth out of her basket and held it up in front of Ace. Makino turned to look Sabo over even as she put the shirt down and pulled a blue one out. She said something else to which Ace replied, which had Luffy laughing and Makino looking embarrassed.

"I'm very sorry, Sabo, I didn't realise. I think this shirt will suit you, if you'd like it." She said.

Sabo nodded shyly. "No, it's fine. A- ari- arigato, Makino-san." He stammered, then winced, sure he had messed it up somehow. Makino's smile was woth it.

"Ieie. I didn't realise Luffy had friends up here, so I'll have to resize it. Are you interested in your brothers' language?"

"Ah ha. Not really, I want to be a pirate and write a book of my adventures, so I'm more interested in the way languages and cultures are different around the world." He told her, scratching the back of his head nervously.

"That's admirable." Makino told him, smiling gently.

* * *

When He woke up, He was in pain. A lot of pain.

"Whe-," He croaked, gratefully accepting the glass of water that was pressed to his lips. "Where am I?" He tried again.

"You are on our ship, the Dragon Force." The person with the afro told him. "I'm Ivankov, and you will be in a considerable amount of pain for a while." It was when Ivankov introduced {them}self that He realised.

"I," He licked his lips and tried again. "I don't know who I am." He thought, vaguely, that He might be reacting to this poorly.

"You can't remember anything?" A man He hadn't seen before asked. He thought the man must have come in just now, but He can't remember.

"You've got 'Sabo' written all over your belongings, that's probably your name." A new guy said. He – Sabo – nodded in agreement.

"One thing's for sure." The second man said. "He's a noble from Goa Kingdom." Sabo felt a bad vibe creeping under his skin that kept insisting it was 'trepidation,' even if he wasn't sure how he knew what trepidation was.

"Then let's send him home." The third man stepped in again. "I'll find his parents."

"NO WAY!" Sabo shouted suddenly, "Please. I don't want to go back! Onegai! Take me with you. Anywhere but there." The second man, who he now noticed had tattoos down the side of his face, seemed to startle and gave Sabo a Look.

"Fine," he said abruptly, turning and leaving the room. Ivankov followed after him.

"I thought Goa only spoke the common language." Sabo heard Ivankov saying. Sabo was confused, he was pretty sure he only knew the one language.

* * *

Sabo ran through headquarters like a madman. He had gotten back from a mission just last week and he was heading out again tomorrow, with a lot to get done before then. He'd worked through the night to get all his paperwork done so now he was headed to hand it in.

"Hello Sabo." The clerk said, taking the stack of papers from him. "That language book you wanted for your mission is here." She said, handing the tome over.

"Danke," Sabo told her, grabbing the book and moving on. The clerk didn't even blink, just wrote the word down and went back to work. Even at sixteen, Sabo was intensely charismatic and his habits had become a game. Everytime he went to a new island, Sabo made it a point to learn a few key phrases of the local language, which he would then use instead of Common when he was flustered. It had become a challenge in the base to record what he said and find out what language it was.

Sabo spent the rest of the day running through his various pre-mission errands until he realised he was due for a debriefing – where he wasn't in attendance.

Sabo made it to the meeting he was supposed to be in within a minute and totally out of breath. Calmly as he could, he knocked on the door and let himself in. There were more than twenty people inside at first glance. Sabo was suddenly very embarrassed.

"Gomenesai," he said, moving to his seat. There were a few murmurs among the crowd before someone called out.

"Where's that one from, Sabo?"

"Sorry?" Sabo called back. "Where's what from?"

"Gomenesai, what language is that?" Someone else yelled out.

"I don't know." Sabo muttered, perplexed. He'd never forgotten a language or word before and he was sure he hadn't heard those particular sounds, either.

"It's Goan," Dragon said suddenly. "But it's not spoken outside two small villages on Dawn island. The main city where we believe Sabo grew up actively scorns any language that isn't the Common. Bunny, back to work." The matter was dropped and it became something Sabo would think about when he had nothing better to do.

He did have to wonder why Dragon kept giving him those considering looks from then on, though.

* * *

 **AN.**

This fic was inured by something I read but can't remember (sorry) where Ace and Luffy's first language was Japanese, which Sabo didn't speak at all. So then I got the initial idea for that last scene.

But that got me thinking: The entire One Piece world seems to speak the same language - with debate if that language is English, Japanese or something else - and doesn't have much variation in beliefs, customs or culture. So now I have created an entire universe to plausibly explain this phenomenon and I may or may not turn it into a series.

If yen have a particular character whose ideas into this you want to see, send me a prompt and I'll see what I can do. I'll probably be more likely t0 if you give me an experience you want to see that character go through. Or, you could write your own and send me a link.

I don't know what language "Danke" comes from. **Please stop telling me it's german, enough people have said it that it must be true.**

 **Dogra is from the One Piece version of Indonesia.**

 _Edited 13/12/15_


End file.
